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JOHN  B.  HENDERSON 

Of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 


No.  2091. —  From  the  Proceedings  of  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
Vol.  48,  pages  659-661,  with  Plates  45-46 

Published  May  22,  1915 


Washington 

Government  Printing  Office 

1915 


: 


REDISCOVERY  OF  POURTALES’  HALIOTIS 


THt  LIBRARY 
OF  THE 

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BY 


JOHN  B.  HENDERSON 

Of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 


No.  2091. —  From  the  Proceedings  of  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
Vol.  48,  pages  659-661,  with  Plates  45-46 


Published  May  22,  1915 


Washington 

Government  Printing  Office 

1915 


REDISCOVERY  OF  POURTALES’  HALIOTIS. 


By  John  B.  Henderson, 
Of  the  Smithsonian  Institution . 


During  1869  a  series  of  dredgings  were  made  under  the  direction 
of  Count  Pourtales  by  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  steamer  Bibb  in  the 
Straits  of  Florida.  The  mollusks  obtained  by  the  Bibb  were  sent  to 
Washington,  and  thence,  in  due  course  of  time,  to  William  Stimpson 
in  Chicago,  to  whose  care  they  were  intrusted  for  report  and  publi¬ 
cation.  Before  Stimpson  had  entered  upon  this  task  the  entire  col¬ 
lection  was  destroyed  in  the  great  Chicago  fire.  While  these  shells 
were  in  Washington  prior  to  their  shipment  to  Chicago  they  were 
inspected  by  Dr.  W  H.  Dali,  who  was  greatly  interested  and  astonished 
to  find  among  the  lot  a  specimen  of  a  Haliotis.  No  representative 
of  this  genus  had  ever  before  been  reported  from  western  Atlantic 
waters.  The  discovery,  therefore,  of  a  Haliotis  from  Florida  was  an 
event  important  enough  to  inspire  a  more  than  casual  scrutiny  of  the 
specimen,  and  its  main  characters  became  impressed  upon  his  mind. 

Some  20  years  later,  when  publishing  a  preliminary  report  upon  the 
mollusks  collected  by  the  Blake,  Doctor  Dali  described  from  his 
memory  this  lost  Haliotis,  naming  it  in  honor  of  Count  Pourtales. 
The  locality  given  clearly  indicates  that  the  specimen  was  a  resident 
of  the  rocky  strip  of  bottom  lying  just  off  the  Florida  Reef  and  since 
referred  to  by  Alexander  Agassiz  as  the  “ Pourtales  Plateau.” 

In  1889  Doctor  Dali  published  a  report  upon  the  mollusca  taken 
by  the  Albatross  in  a  voyage  made  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  to  Cali¬ 
fornia.  In  this  report  he  refers  with  some  hesitancy  a  Haliotis  col¬ 
lected  in  the  Galapagos  to  H.  pourtalesii  and  adds  a  new  description 
of  the  species  based  upon  the  new  examples  taken  by  the  Albatross. 
These  specimens  are  in  the  United  States  National  Museum  collection 
(Cat.  No.  96392). 

Two  years  ago,  while  dredging  from  the  Eolis  along  the  inner  edge 
of  the  Pourtales  Plateau  off  Key  West  in  90  fathoms,  I  had  the  ex- 

Proceedings  U.  S.  National  Museum,  Vol.  48— No.  2091. 

659 


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660 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM. 


VOL.  48. 


treme  good  fortune  to  secure  a  Haliotis,  although  a  small  and  some¬ 
what  immature  specimen.  Upon  showing  this  to  Doctor  Dali,  he  at 
once  pronounced  it  to  be  the  true  Haliotis  pourtalesii,  as  the  sight  of 
the  specimen  itself  refreshed  his  memory  of  the  example  taken  so 
many  years  ago  by  Pourtales  at  about  the  same  locality.  A  com¬ 
parison  with  the  Galapagos  specimens  above  referred  to  immediately 
demonstrated  the  fact  that  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  “ pourtalesii” 
were  not  the  same,  but,  upon  the  contrary,  very  distinct  species. 

The  importance  of  an  east  American  representative  of  this  essen¬ 
tially  Pacific  genus  warrants  a  new  description  made  from  this  unique 
specimen,  now  in  the  Museum  collection  (Cat.  No.  271601).  I  give 
the  following  description  and  figure.  The  Galapagos  Island  species 
must  receive  a  new  designation.  I  take  much  pleasure  in  naming 
it  in  honor  of  Doctor  Dali. 

HALIOTIS  (PADOLLUS)  POURTALESH  Dali. 

Plates  45  and  46,  upper  figures. 

1881.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Dall,  Bull.  Mus.  Comp.  Zool.  Cambridge,  vol.  9,  No.  2, 
p.  79. 

1889.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Dall,  Bull.  Mus.  Comp.  Zool.  Cambridge,  vol.  28,  pp. 
33  and  395. 

1889.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Dall,  Bull.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  No.  37,  p.  168. 

1903.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Dall,  Bull.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  No.  37,  p.  168.-  (Reprint.) 

1911.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Henderson,  Nautilus,  vol.  25,  No.  7,  p.  81. 

1914.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Cooke,  Proc.  Mai.  Soc.  London,  vol.  11,  pt.  2,  p.  103. 

Shell  somewhat  longer  than  wide.  Holes  17,  the  last  5  open  with 
prominent  margins,  the  closed  ones  prominent  and  bulbous.  Nucleus 
consisting  of  one  full  whorl,  smooth.  The  characteristic  sculpture 
begins  with  the  postnuclear  whorl  in  very  fine  spiral  lines  which  de¬ 
velop  gradually  into  sharply  raised,  irregularly  waving,  spiral  threads 
with  finer  intercalated  threads  appearing  and  continuing  to  the 
edge  of  the  aperture.  At  the  end  of  the  second  whorl  there  are  10 
of  these  threads  between  the  suture  and  the  line  of  holes;  at  the 
margin  of  the  aperture,  23  to  27.  Below  the  line  of  holes  the  threads 
are  more  widely  spaced,  the  third  one  forming  a  decidedly  angulated 
periphery.  Base  marked  by  four  equal,  equally  spaced,  spiral  threads 
on  the  posterior  half.  Anterior  half  of  the  base  smooth,  excepting 
a  slender  spiral  sulcus  a  little  within  the  edge  of  the  wide  expanded 
aperture.  The  axial  sculpture  consists  of  rather  regularly  spaced 
lines  of  growth.  Color  wax  yellow  with  deeper  patches  of  orange; 
nacreous  shining  within. 

Length,  1 1  mm. ;  width,  8  mm. 

Dredged  about  3  miles  off  Sand  Key,  Florida,  in  90  fathoms,  on 
sand  patches  among  rocks,  on  the  edge  of  the  “ Pourtales  Plateau.” 


no.  2091.  REDISCOVERY  OF  POURTALES’  HALIOTIS— HENDERSON.  661 


HALIOTIS  (PADOLLUS)  DALLI,  new  name. 

Plates  45  and  46,  lower  figures. 

1889.  Haliotis  pourtalesii ?  Dall,  Proc.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  vol.  12,  p.  355,  pi.  12, 
figs.  1,  3. 

1890.  Haliotis  pourtalesii  Pilsbry,  Man.  Conch.,  ser.  1,  vol.  12,  p.  121,  pi.  22, 
figs.  27,  28. 

1893.  Haliotis  pourtalesii ?  Stearns,  Proc.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  No.  942,  vol.  16, 
pp.  418,  448. 

The  following  is  Doctor  Dali’s  description  in  full: 

Shell  small,  of  a  pale  brick-red  color,  with  white  dots  on  some  of  the  spirals,  rather 
elevated,  with  about  2\  whorls;  apex  small,  prominent;  holes  about  25,  of  which  5 
remain  open,  the  margins  of  these  rather  prominent;  outside  the  row  of  holes  the 
usual  sulcus  is  strongly  marked;  about  midway  from  the  suture  to  the  lines  of  holes 
is  a  raised  rib,  rather  obscure  but  differing  in  different  individuals  and  corresponding 
to  an  internal  sulcus;  between  the  central  ridge  and  the  suture  there  are  no  undulations 
or  transverse  ridges  of  consequence;  sculpture  of  well  marked,  rather  flattish,  spiral, 
close-set  threads,  sometimes  with  a  single  finer  intercalary  thread,  overlaid  by  smaller 
rather  compressed  transverse  ridges,  in  harmony  with  the  incremental  lines;  on  top 
of  the  spirals  the  ridges  bulge  like  the  threads  of  worsted  on  canvas  embroidery;  spire 
situated  well  forward  and  with  sub-vertical  sides;  interior  pearly,  the  coil  of  the  spire 
rather  close  and  the  margin  of  the  pillar  flattened.  Longitude  of  shell,  23;  latitude, 
18;  altitude,  11.5;  nucleus  behind  the  anterior  end,  17  mm. 

Hah. — Station  2815,  in  33  fathoms,  sand;  near  Charles  Island,  of  the  Galapagos 
group,  in  the  Pacific. 

The  nearest  relative  of  this  shell  is  H.  parva,  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which 
differs  from  our  specimens  chiefly  in  the  greater  prominence  of  the  central  rib,  and 
in  being  a  little  more  circular  in  outline. 

The  shell  from  the  Galapagos  agrees  so  exactly  with  what  we  know  of  H.  pourtalesii 
and  with  my  own  recollection  of  the  type  specimen  destroyed  in  the  Chicago  fire, 
that  I  am  unwilling  to  separate  it,  though  the  distance  between  the  two  localities 
is  so  great. 

The  occurrence  of  this  shell  at  the  Galapagos  is  of  great  interest  apart  from  its 
supposed  connection  with  the  Floridian  species.  No  species  of  Haliotis  is  known 
from  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  of  Central  America,  or  of  North  America  south 
of  northern  Mexico.  There  are  one  or  two  small  not  nearly  related  species  in  the 
Melanesian  Islands  and  north  Australia.  So  the  present  species  is  remarkably 
isolated.  Nothing  of  the  sort  has  been  previously  reported  from  the  Galapagos. 
Two  specimens  were  obtained,  neither  containing  the  soft  parts.  The  original  type 
of  H.  pourtalesii  contained  the  animal.  It  would  probably  be  referred  to  the  section 
Padollus. 


U.  S.  NATIONAL  MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,  VOL.  48  PL.  45 


Outside  Views  of  Haliotis  pourtalesii  and  H.  dalli. 


For  explanation  of  plate  see  pages  660  and  661. 


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u.  S.  NATIONAL  MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,  VOL.  48  PL.  46 


Inside  Views  of  Haliotis  pourtalesii  and  H.  dalli. 


For  explanation  of  plate  see  pages  660  and  661. 


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